[Facetious]

I have never worked in France.

I am 72 years old, an EU citizen and living in Ireland where I have a non-contributory pension (which is not paid to me if I leave Ireland. I also have free health care in Ireland (plus free travel on trains and most buses/coaches).

Can anyone confirm if I can move to France and claim ASPA. From my research, I believe I can but want confirmation if anyone else is claiming ASPA.

Also, if I can claim ASPA, what about health insurance - would I be entitled to French health care. I do have cancer of the bone marrow (Multiple Myeloma) which at the moment is in a stage of remission but with continued medication.

Thanks for any comments.

 

[DejW]

Hello, welcome to our forum!

I like your name, "facetious".....I'm sure that Bev our mod here will think that your name is better suited to me and my odd ball comments.

I'm no expert at all on ASPA. However, why do you need to tell your pension provider that you are leaving Ireland? (a bizarre restriction in my opinion, is it legal under EU law?)

Our usual advice here is for new expats to keep a postal address, bank acccount etc in their home country for at least 5 years until your new life has been established. I've been in France for 16 years and my UK bank account receives my UK pensions, pays for presents for my UK family, and a couple of subscriptions etc.

We've had Brits posting in this forum about the difficulty of going "home" after a number of years in France. With all the new banking laws they found it very difficult to open a new bank account in their home country - no credit history, no UK address history etc.

I hope others can be more helpful.......

....DejW

I have never worked in France.

I am 72 years old, an EU citizen and living in Ireland where I have a non-contributory pension (which is not paid to me if I leave Ireland. I also have free health care in Ireland (plus free travel on trains and most buses/coaches).

Can anyone confirm if I can move to France and claim ASPA. From my research, I believe I can but want confirmation if anyone else is claiming ASPA.

Also, if I can claim ASPA, what about health insurance - would I be entitled to French health care. I do have cancer of the bone marrow (Multiple Myeloma) which at the moment is in a stage of remission but with continued medication.

Thanks for any comments.

 

[Bevdeforges]

This is the page from the Service Public site regarding ASPA (in French, as most information here on public benefits tends to be).: https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F16871

Under the heading Conditions, you'll note that there is a tab for French and a tab for foreigners. In the foreigners case, you need to have established your legal residence in France before you can apply. Note, too, that the maximum ASPA is just a bit over 800€ a month, which isn't much to live on in France.

As far as health coverage goes, it's not necessarily free here. After you have established residence, you can apply for the national system - which does not necessarily pay 100% of your medical expenses. Most people have a mutuelle (top up insurance) to cover the unreimbursed costs of health care. With a serious condition like you have, the state cover will probably cover all treatment related to that diagnosis 100%, but for other things you'll need the mutuelle. Figure anywhere from 50 to 150€ per month for mutuelle coverage, depending on what you need and want. (The state plan doesn't cover dental or eye care particularly well and it's that sort of cover that determines the cost of the mutuelle.)

There are a number of discount cards for trains and some local public transit, however there isn't a program of free travel like you may be used to. Again, you pay for the discount card, so it's not really worthwhile unless you plan on traveling regularly.
Cheers,
Bev

 

[Facetious]

Hello, welcome to our forum!

I like your name, "facetious".....I'm sure that Bev our mod here will think that your name is better suited to me and my odd ball comments.

I hope others can be more helpful.......

....DejW

The reason I like facetious is that it one of a few words in the English Language which has all 5 vowels and they are in alphabetical order - a,e,i,o, & u.

Anyway, thanks for your input.

 

[Facetious]

Hi Bev,

I have read the ASPA pages in French (and I might add that my French, although very rusty as I haven't used it since the 1970s, is not too bad.

In Ireland, I can live on (food and toiletries) about €80 a month and as I own my own apartment the only other living expenses are electric and apartment management fees.

Luxuries such as motorcycle and motorhome expenses then come as no problem!

Also I Ireland, I can lose some of my pension if I have more than €20,000 in the bank or any other assets such as stocks and shares or anything that can provide an income.

I am also allowed, as I'm over 65 years of age, to have a paying lodger living with me (€265 monthly) but I do lose my living alone benefit of €9 a week!

Thanks for the info on the health issue. My understanding of the rules is that as I would be classed as a low income person that I could get help through CMU-C which, in fact would cover all my health costs.

Really, I am looking for some reassurance of my understanding of the situation especially from expats who have claimed and been allowed or disallowed assistance.

Claiming and receiving are not necessarily in the same sentence.

Your help has be reassuring; many thanks.

 

[EuroTrash]

The problem you may have is that many benefits in France are conditional upon "regular and stable residence", and in order for a immigrant from another EU country to be recognised as having regular and stable residence in France, they are required during the first 5 years of residence to have income above a certain level to ensure that they're not going to become "a burden on the state".
https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F12017

Un européen inactif ou retraité peut séjourner plus de 3 mois en France à condition de :

posséder un titre d'identité ou un passeport en cours de validité,
disposer d'une assurance maladie-maternité,
et d'avoir des ressources suffisantes pour ne pas devenir une charge dans le système d'assistance sociale français.

You can also find out from the same page what the minimum income levels are.

 

[Facetious]

The problem you may have is that many benefits in France are conditional upon "regular and stable residence", and in order for a immigrant from another EU country to be recognised as having regular and stable residence in France, they are required during the first 5 years of residence to have income above a certain level to ensure that they're not going to become "a burden on the state".


You can also find out from the same page what the minimum income levels are.

After much further research, I found PUMA (Protection Universelle Maladie) which commenced 1 Jan 2016.It replaces CMU. It is available to all persons legally resident in France who lived there for a minimum of 3 months. They must have their main or principle residence in Fance and reside there at least 180 days a year.

One of the difficulties of searching the internet is that there are many sites which give outdated information and very often they do not have a date that the information refers to.

 

[EuroTrash]

After much further research, I found PUMA (Protection Universelle Maladie) which commenced 1 Jan 2016.It replaces CMU. It is available to all persons legally resident in France who lived there for a minimum of 3 months. They must have their main or principle residence in Fance and reside there at least 180 days a year.

Yes that is correct, and the definition of "legal residence" is as per my previous post.

If an EU citizen doesn't meet the conditions for legal residence nobody is going to stop them from living here, there's no mechanism for that and I'm sure plenty of Brits are living here below the radar. But, anyone who doesn't meet the conditions can't claim any of the benefits that specifically require you to be "legally resident". So for instance when you apply to join PUMA you will be asked to provide full details of income, since a minimum level of income is one of the conditions. If you still have your Irish pension that won't be an issue but if you don't, it could be.

FYI the "service-public" website that I linked to is the French government website and that is the best place to look for info as it is always up to date. In fact it also alerts you if the information on that page is correct now but is likely to change in the near future.